Tag: Eastside

On May 12, Capital Metro and our partners hosted more than 50 members of the community to unveil our new historical art exhibit decorating the bus stop at 12th and Chicon Streets. The unveiling was held as a part of the East 12th Street Merchants Association’s 12th on 12th series.

President/CEO Randy Clarke joined Jeff Travillion, a Cap Metro board member and Travis County Commissioner, at the event, along with City Manager Spencer Cronk, city council member Ora Houston and representatives from Huston-Tillotson, APD, the city of Austin and the East 12th Street Merchants Association. Native East Austinite and community leader Creola Burns was the M.C. for the event and has been integral to the exhibit’s revitalization.

Travillion and Creola Burns view the plaque.

The exhibit tells the story of the neighborhood and honors the history of African-Americans in East Austin. For the past 18 months, Cap Metro has worked with several community partners to revamp the bus stop on the southeast corner of 12th & Chicon, and the exhibit celebrates the East Austin neighborhood’s “Heritage, Pride, Prosperity.”

Cap Metro’s website tells a little bit more of the story and showcases some fantastic photographs from the collections of neighborhood families and our partners like the Austin History Center and Huston-Tillotson University.

We’d love to hear your own personal story of East Austin and the 12th & Chicon neighborhood. Please leave comments below this post, which we hope will serve as a place to share memories.

For the past 18 months, Cap Metro has worked with several community partners to revamp the bus stop on the southeast corner of 12th & Chicon. And in less than another month, you’ll be able to check out what all that work has produced when we unveil the new historical plaques that celebrate the East Austin neighborhood’s “Heritage, Pride, Prosperity.”

When & Where

Saturday, May 12 at 11:30 a.m.

Southeast corner of 12th & Chicon

Cap Metro and the East 12th Street Merchants Association would like to invite you to Return & Discover East 12th Street as part of the Merchants Association’s monthly ‘12th on 12th’ series.

Capital Metro President/CEO Linda Watson with Board and Council Member Pio Renteria

This was a big week for Capital Metro, a week decades in the making. With our partners Endeavor Real Estate and Columbus Realty alongside members of the community, we celebrated the groundbreaking of the Plaza Saltillo District on Wednesday.

Braving the warm, muggy weather, a couple hundred people joined us at Plaza Saltillo, right next to our MetroRail station and directly adjacent to a 10-acre tract of land that’s laid empty since the mid-1990s.

It won’t be empty for much longer, though. When construction is through, the development will feature 800 residential apartment units (almost 20 percent of which will be reserved as affordable housing), more than 110,000 square feet of retail space, 140,000 square feet of office space, an acre-and-a-half of open space with public art and access to a range of transportation options. In addition to our own MetroRail and MetroBus services, the Plaza Saltillo District will be located right along an extended Lance Armstrong Bikeway and two historical walking paths (the Tejano Music Legends Trail and the Tejano Healthy Walking Trail); it will also have access to Austin B-cycle stations and Car2Go vehicles.

Rather than your typical event with a big pile of imported dirt and shiny new shovels, the Plaza Saltillo groundbreaking featured a flag-planting ceremony. Representatives of Capital Metro, the city of Austin, Endeavor Real Estate and the neighboring community staked flags symbolizing the three organizing partners: Cap Metro, Endeavor and the city. We included the Texas state flag too.

Cap Metro President/CEO Linda Watson spoke enthusiastically about the trajectory of the project, and the agency’s efforts to guide the development in a way that served the needs of Capital Metro, as well as the neighborhood and the entire region.

Pio Renteria is a member of both our board of directors and the Austin City Council, representing East Austin. He and East Side resident Johnny Limon talked with passion about the history and the people of East Austin. In his dual roles, Renteria was instrumental in getting the project through the final steps of the approval process. Limon, too, worked for years leading a community group dedicated to finding a solution for the abandoned railyard that will be home to the development.

In addition to the flags and the great speeches, the crowd was able to enjoy tamales and agua frescas from the Tamale House (located just down the street from the station), conjunto music by Los Pinkys and paletas from Mom and Pops Frozen Pops.

Remediation work on the former brownfield site has already started and construction of the underground parking structure will begin shortly. In all, the project is expected to take about 30 months.

Wednesday was a fun way to acknowledge the road we’ve taken so far and to look to the days ahead when the development be finished. Once done, the resulting Plaza Saltillo District will be a great addition to Austin and Central Texas.

As a part of their “Living Healthy on the Eastside” campaign, volunteer members of the Alliance for African American Health in Central Texas (AAAHCT) are on a mission to help Austinites stop smoking.

This week they’ll be hitting the streets, along with our MetroAmbassadors, walking and talking with riders at Capital Metro bus stops in East Austin and handing out free smoking cessation information brochures.

To respond TEXT atxnotobacco with a space and then your response (1, 2, 3 or 4) to 84444 (text charges may apply). For example, if you’ve never smoked, text the phrase “atxnotobacco 1” as your message to the number 84444.

Did you know that all Capital Metro facilities, bus stops, stations and properties are 100% smoke free?

In addition, Capital Metro proactively discourages tobacco use within 15 feet of every bus stop for the health and safety of all riders waiting for the bus. Kindly do not use tobacco within 15 feet of your bus stop.

Capital Metro enacted tobacco-free policies at its facilities because it believes that ensuring a healthy work and traveling environment is key to providing quality, state-of-the-art transit services.